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Fretboard Lessons
Guitar
Fretboard Lessons
Know the fretboard like the back of your hand
This series of lessons will take you through the necessary practical steps for learning the guitar fretboard.
We'll start with learning the basics followed by where the notes lie on the fretboard, before
moving on to string/note relationships and finally intervals.
This all goes hand in hand
with guitar theory and
should be your first stop before moving on to learn how notes really
work together in chords and scales. Let us begin...
Guitar
fretboard lessons - fretboard basics
We'll cover the basics here just in case - many guitarists
play for months or even years and still don't know this stuff...
Firstly, as you probably know,
the frets on your guitar are numbered - learn to number your
fret spaces:
With
"0" representing the open strings (not fretted) these are the same
notes as those at fret 12 - the notes at fret 12 are one octave higher
than the open strings...
Once you get to the 12th fret you're at the octave
and so fret 13 notes will be the same as fret 1 notes, but an octave
higher. Fret 16 notes will be the same as fret 4 notes but an octave
higher. There should be dot inlays in the same intervals
passed the 12th fret as there are an octave below.
More
fretboard basics here (opens in new window) >
The notes on
the fretboard
Learning all the notes on the fretboard can be learned the easy way, or
the hard way... How about the easy way for now though?
Follow the fretboard diagrams
below - study one diagram a day for just 15 minutes and this will sink
in very quickly.
Day 1
First, you should create
"marker points" on the fretboard in your mind. Actually, they're
already there, on the guitar. Use the dot inlays
(or whatever shape of inlay you have) to quickly identify the following
notes...
Notes on the fat E
string
So we already established the open low E string was...E!
At fret 3 -
G
At fret 5 - A (so exactly the same as
the open A string)
At fret 7 - B
At fret 9 - C# (C sharp - more on sharps
and flats in a minute)
At fret 12- the octave of E (a higher
sounding E)
Then, the whole thing starts
again an octave higher from the 12th fret. If you
do have 24 frets on your guitar, the 24th will be an even higher E note.
Day 2 - fill in the
gaps
Now we just need to learn the
notes on the E string in between the inlay marked
notes.
Let's take a look...
From the low open E to the octave E at the 12th fret, the order of
notes is
E | F | F# | G | Ab | A | Bb | B | C
| C# | D | Eb | E
This "order" alone can tell you all you need to know - for example the
open B string starts on B obviously, so find B on the order above and
follow the cycle! There is a much more practical way to learn the notes
all over the fretboard though which we'll look at in part 2 soon.
Tip - B and C don't
have any sharps or flats in between them, neither do E and F.
Day 3 - A string notes
Just like with the E string
notes, let's apply the same method to the A string notes.
1st, the notes at the inlay
markers...
Again, from open A to the octave at fret 12 try and just learn these
note positions, so if someone were to shout "FRET 7!" you'd almost
immediately be able to say what note lies there on the A string. If
someone does scream out something like that randomly though, they may
be dangerous... answer them and run away.
Day 4 - fill the gaps
for the last time
Just like with the low E
string...
Remember how there were no sharps and flats in between B and C, E and F
- same applies wherever you are!
OK, once you've reached day 4
we can progress to the next part.
...And the rest of
the notes on the fretboard?
Just before we move on to find out a quick and simple way to learn
where the rest of the notes are on the fretboard, a few final tips for
this part...
- Learn the order of notes. E.g. if I asked "what
comes after
C# (C sharp)?", you should answer "D" or "what comes before B?" answer
"Bb (B flat)"
-
With the two
strings we've covered already, you can probably see some string
relation going on. The E note on the A string (fret 7) is the same as
the Low E string (although obviously a lower sounding E on the open E
string.)
-
The B note on the A string
(fret 2) is the same as fret 7 on the low E string.
-
The C# note on the E
string (fret 9) is the same as fret 4 on the A string
-
etc.!
This is the kind of relationship between strings you should work on
during your theory time at the moment. Just those two strings for
now...
See you in part 2! 
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